The Dutch-flagged vessel Sea-Watch 3, which is operated by a German humanitarian organization, rescued 32 migrants including women, children and unaccompanied minors off the coast of Libya on Dec. 22.

Sea-Eye, which is another German humanitarian group, said its boat of the same name is also stranded off the coast of Malta after it plucked 17 people from the Mediterranean Sea on Dec. 29.

The doctor aboard Sea-Watch 3 — which has been unable to dock for 16 days — said some of the migrants were seasick and growing increasingly desperate. On Jan. 4, Sea-Watch said one migrant had even tried to jump ship and swim to Malta before he was hauled back on board.

“The situation here on board is getting more and more unstable. Every day the stress level is increasing,” said the doctor who was identified only as Frank in a video posted on Twitter. “It is a very dire situation. This needs to end as soon as possible."

Day 16 without a port of safety: The situation on board the #SeaWatch3 remains critical and does not allow any relaxation. Our doctor Frank gives a short update. pic.twitter.com/5ygeRMHUaO

Muscat said his country had saved almost 250 people at sea over the Christmas period “without protesting” but that it was not its responsibility to take in these 49 migrants as they were not rescued in Maltese waters.

Italy has also refused to welcome the ships. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who also serves as deputy prime minster and who is a member of an anti-immigration populist party, has said the country has taken in “too many fake refugees.”

“Human trafficking must be stopped," he posted on Facebook explaining his decision to keep Italy's ports closed. "People escaping war should come to Italy by plane, as many already do, not by boat. We can send medicines, food and clothes to the boats, but enough of this blackmail."

Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, said the U.N. had received offers from some European states to receive the migrants aboard Sea-Watch 3 and Sea-Eye but gave no further details.

Nevertheless he warned that "unless a shared system of disembarkation and care is agreed upon, protracted negotiations will continue to cause hardship to those suffering and tension in Europe."

Jeff Crisp, an expert in migration at the University of Oxford in England, said the fact that the migrants aboard the rescue ships still hadn't been able to disembark marked a "bleak beginning" for the first year of the agreement with its primary focus on responsibility-sharing.